Kim said "to achieve peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula
and realize its denuclearization," North Korea and the US "should
commit themselves to refraining from antagonizing with each
other," according to North Korean media.

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To China, the agreement sounded like one they had been pushing
all along, a "suspension for suspension", where the US stops
military drills with South Korea in exchange for North Korea
halting missile and nuclear tests.

The US has long resisted
calls from North Korea and China for dual
suspension, saying that the bilateral, planned, and transparent
military drills are legal while North Korea's nuclear program is
not.

If North Korea's illegal nuclear program forced the US military
to stop training with its ally, then it sends a powerful message
to leaders everywhere: The US can be blackmailed with nukes.

The US loose tooth in Asia

caption

U.S. soldiers stand guard near a U.S. F-22 stealth fighter at the Osan Air Base on February 17, 2016 in Pyeongtaek, South Korea. U.S. military has deployed four F-22 stealth fighter jets to the Korean Peninsula as another response to North Korea's nuclear and missile threats.

source

Jeon Heon-Kyun-Pool/Getty Images

Without military exercises, the massive installation of troops
will wither. Already, North Korea has criticized the US and South
Korea's military drills, saying they're not helpful for peace
talks.

Trump, seemingly unprompted, has long wanted to withdraw the US
from South Korea, and now he may have found a reason.

If the US and North Korea, or North and South Korea normalize
relations, that undercuts the stated rationale for having US
forces on the peninsula.

Why should the US station 30,000 troops in Korea if Korea is at
peace? One reason could be to rein in China.

China's rise has been a long time coming. The US military, even
with its massive forces in Japan and Korea, already strains to
contain it. But losing the foothold in South Korea could be the
straw that breaks the camel's back.

"The US-DPRK summit - the first in history - was an epochal
event of great significance in overcoming decades of tensions and
hostilities between the two countries and for the opening up of a
new future," Trump and Kim's joint statement read.

But the new epoch envisioned here by Trump and Kim may be
one in which the US loses its grip on Asia, and then the world,
and the new future will likely be ruled from Beijing, not
Washington.